Daylight
by Novice Comic Lover
Summary: Lancitty Songfic set just after Mainstream.


**Author's Note:** Songfic using "Daylight" by 16 Frames.

_I spent the night trying to get to you_

_I'm breaking down I'm not breaking through_

_I couldn't write you a love song if I tried_

_I tried, Believe me I have failed_

"Dammit, Kitty! Answer the phone!" Lance yelled as he slammed the phone back into its cradle. He had been calling her every five minutes since he had gotten back to the brotherhood house from the… incident back at the high school. Her words rang in his ears the entire walk home. _You're nothing but a hood._ Lance had sent the rest of the team back in his jeep, flinging the keys at Pietro and telling them to get lost. He wanted to punish himself, feel the stab of Kitty's words with every step it took to get back. He ran through several different emotions throughout the walk. First he was just filled with rage, but it gave way to severe depression which led to guilt. He couldn't believe the nerve of Kitty, but then thinking about her made him realize he had lost her, and he knew that was all his fault. He paced across his small room as he waited for the clock to tick through another couple of minutes, pouncing on the phone as soon as five minutes had passed since his last phone call. He dialed her cell number which was burned into his brain the minute she gave it to him all those days ago. It rang once, twice, three times and then there was a click.

"Hi! This is Kitty, but I'm not here right now. Lance! I'm recording here. Stop it! Leave a message at the beep!" Lance grimaced as the recorded giggle echoed against his skin. He remembered everything about that giggle. They had been sitting on a bench outside the mall, just minutes after he had bought her the phone so that they could talk without the prying ears of any of the other X-geeks. Within seconds of dropping it into her hands, she had been entranced, quickly changing the screen to be a picture of the two of them and the ringtone to be some lovey dovey song she had decided was theirs. Lance vaguely remembered that song was played at the dance he took her to, and his frown deepened as that memory came to mind, too. She had been changing the outgoing voice mail message when he couldn't resist her any longer. He had been nibbling at her neck while her little giddy voice rattled away. She had wanted to rerecord the message, but he had quickly clamped his mouth down over hers, keeping her too busy to bother. That had been several months ago, and she still hadn't gotten around to changing it. That had been when they were happy together, when things had been good, despite the occasional squabble or the massive tension that erupted anytime he and Scott were in the same room.

"Please call me back, Kitten," Lance sighed, hanging up the phone again and slumping against the bed. He had called at least fifty times already. Each time he left a message, and each one was different. They varied from cries of outrage _"How could you say that I'm nothing but a hood? It's like I mean nothing to you!", _to groveling _"I'm so sorry, Kitten. I don't know what I was thinking.",_ to name-calling _"Don't be such a drama queen, Kitty!", _to justifications _"You don't know how hard it is for us here at the Brotherhood, Pretty Kitty.", _and everything in between. Kitty, he knew, wouldn't be calling him back or answering his calls anytime soon. Lance decided to call it quits for now, figuring that waking Kitty up with a ringing phone at one thirty in the morning was just going to tick her off even more. Instead, Lance pulled his guitar to him and set to write a song. Any other time that they had gotten in a fight that ended in Lance having to beg forgiveness, he'd play and sing some cheesey song he knew she loved and win his way back into her good graces. He figured since she wasn't even taking his calls this time, that only pouring his heart and soul into an original song was the only way to make things right. Lance tried again and again, balled up pieces of paper with ridiculous scribbles full of half-baked rhyming poetry littered his floor and caused frustration to bubble up from within. No matter how hard he tried, Lance couldn't find the right combination of words to show Kitty how sorry he was, and more importantly how much he cared for her. After ripping out the last page of notebook paper from his spiral and tossing it in the general direction of the trashcan, he put the guitar away and curled up by the window.

_5 am and I haven't been to bed_

_Not a single word has come to me_

_Nothing that I think that you'd believe_

_Enough to bring you back to me_

Lance tore his eyes away from the stars and his thoughts about the song for Kitty to stare at the clock. Five in the morning and he wasn't any closer to getting Kitty back. Sprawled across the bread, Lance watched the sun rise, thinking about Kitty, the song, and how nothing seemed like it was going to get any better. That's when Lance found himself, spread eagle on the bed, staring at the rising sun, phone in hand wondering what he was trying to do. He scooped up a ball of paper and smoothed it out. He scratched through a couple of lines that he had scribbled out earlier and started to write.

_The only thing I can say_

_Is maybe it's time to move on_

_In the daylight things are different_

As the words came pouring out, he realized the song was about ending their relationship. It pained him, but he was so sure that there was no winning Kitty back anyways. As the sun rose higher and higher, Lance wrote faster and faster. When he was finished, he spent a little time pondering over the fact that before the sun came up he had been so determined to fix the great relationship he and Kitty had, but now, he realized that there were a lot of problems. They'd rarely had an opportunity to be a normal couple, often times they had to sneak away to spend a few moments together. In fact, Lance couldn't help but think about all the time they had spent hiding their relationship. The awkward phone calls that inevitably got cut short, the complicated measures they went to just to meet up somewhere on the weekends, and he had even had to buy her that cell phone just so they could get some privacy. More and more of the memories that Lance had been reminiscing over just a few hours ago were becoming tainted with the secrecy that surrounded them.

_Maybe it's time to move on_

_Cause it can't be if it isn't_

_Been stuck in this place for so long_

At about noon, Lance sat at the kitchen table with the rest of the team for the lunch that Fred had cooked and he was almost completely convinced that he and Kitty were over. He told himself, and all of the guys as he ranted and raved in a sleepy, and admittedly drunken thanks to the guys deciding they should start early to celebrate Lance's new bachelorhood, stupor, that of course Kitty and him were over because they had never been anything to begin with. How could they mend a relationship that had always been broken? The boys made a lot of noncommittal hm's and huh's, sharing eye rolls when Lance wasn't looking.

"It's sover! To bein' smingles!" Lance slurred between chuckles as he lifted his beer can. The boys all laughed and repeated _"To bein' smingles!"_ as they clanked cans.

_I hate that you are gone girl_

_I hate that you are gone_

_So maybe it's time to move on_

As Lance sobered up, he felt himself missing Kitty more and more. Yet, he was still decidedly committed to them being over. He knew it would suck, but he figured it couldn't be any worse than the complicated not really being together mess that was them trying to be together. To lift his spirits, the boys decided to take him out, so they got cleaned up and headed out for the nearest club that didn't card. Once there, Pietro decided that he and Lance needed to ditch Todd and Fred if they were going to have any luck. The two of them had barely grabbed a drink before Pietro was off talking to some group of girls. Lance thought about following his buddy and joining in, but he wasn't feeling it. He leaned against the bar instead, taking in the surroundings. His heart started to race as he caught sight of a familiar brown ponytail, swishing to the beat on the dance floor. She turned around and Lance realized it wasn't Kitty after all, but she was cute and so he decided to go for it anyways. He wormed his way over to her on the dance floor and quickly introduced himself.

"Hey, I'm Lance. Wanna dance?" he shouted over the music.

_Another girl whose name I'll soon forget_

_She looks a lot like you I think_

_I play her songs I know she wants to hear_

_It keeps my dreams of you alive_

"Sure. I'm Becky," she yelled back. Lance smiled and took her hand in his, but it felt all wrong. He knew she looked a little bit like Kitty, mostly just because of her hair, but she was just some girl he'd likely forget in a couple of days. He pushed on despite the sick feeling stirring in his gut and asked her if she wanted to go somewhere. She made it easy for him, suggesting they go back to his place. On their way out the door, Lance caught Pietro's attention and signaled to the girl, Stephanie? Katie? Amy? Something like that, he couldn't really remember and he really didn't care. Pietro shot Lance a sardonic grin with a nod and signaled to the three or four girls he had around him. Lance couldn't help but laugh, because even though Pietro always managed to get a group of girls around him, he always came home alone. For a split second, Lance wondered what his deal was, but he had never questioned him about it before, so why start now? Lance and the girl made their way back to the brotherhood house and straight up to his room. The second they walked in she screeched and ran over to the guitar.

"You play?!" Her high-pitched squeal hurt his ears, but Lance forced a smile and nodded. She thrust the guitar into his hands and begged him to play something for her. He tried to think of something, but everything that came to mind was something that he had played for Kitty. He asked her for suggestions and she named a few radio popular songs that luckily, he knew just well enough to please her. She clapped so enthusiastically each and every time Lance finished strumming the chords to a song that he wondered if she was going to throw her bra at him at any second. It was completely unlike Kitty's reactions which were calm but appreciative. After about four songs, Lance pushed the guitar aside and went for it.

_Early morning I don't feel so good_

_In fact I feel a little sick_

_I'm so tired of looking back_

_So I sit and watch the evening as it fades_

Lance was stretched out on the bed, the girl's body curled up into his, and he still couldn't sleep. The moon was rising higher in the sky, but he wasn't tired. He hadn't slept in so long that the idea of sleep felt wrong, almost as wrong as being curled up with some girl that wasn't Kitty. He slipped out from under her and quickly got dressed, staring at the phone. It hadn't rung once. He tried to refocus on the girl in his bed, her hair was still in a ponytail, though it was messy and not at all tight and perfect like the one Kitty always managed to keep. A flood of memories of Kitty started to wash over Lance, but he pushed them back, a sudden exhaustion from the rollercoaster of emotions he went through with Kitty overwhelming him. He pulled the paper to him that he had scribbled over last night, the only one he hadn't tossed away and studied it.

_The only thing I can say_

_Is maybe it's time to move on_

_In the daylight things are different_

As he read over the words, the feeling of finality settled deep in the bit of his stomach. It had felt so right this morning as he had watched the sun rise, but now he wasn't so sure. He looked back to the girl in his bed again as she stirred.

_Maybe it's time to move on_

_Cause it can't be if it isn't_

_Been stuck in this place for so long_

"Come back to bed," her whiny voice caused Lance to visibly flinch. "Something wrong?"

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," Lance ran his hands through his hair wondering how he could get her to leave without being a jerk.

"Oh, I'll go with you," she got up and started to get dressed.

"No. I, um, just want to be alone," he mumbled, picking a spot on the floor to study so he didn't have to see realization cross her face.

"Oh. So…" she trailed off and he cursed under his breath. Apparently she wasn't going to make this easy for him.

"Maybe you should just go," he looked up just as her chipper smile faded.

"Are you serious?" she shifted her hands to her hips and fixed him with a glare.

"Yeah. Look, it was nice and all, but I just got out of something serious. So… I'm sorry, but I think you should just go, Maggie," he leaned against the wall, eyeing her for what kind of reaction she would have and praying it wasn't violent.

"It's BECKY! You are such a jerk, GOD!" she screeched before storming out. Lance thanked his lucky stars that she had just left and not caused more of a scene and watched her leave the house from the safety of his second-story window.

_I hate that you are gone girl_

_I hate that you are gone_

_So maybe it's time to move on_

Lance felt even worse than before. Bile was rising into his throat and he wasn't sure if it was because he felt like a pathetic loser for jumping the first girl he met because Kitty hadn't forgiven him yet or if it was because he felt guilty for the way he had treated the poor girl. Either way, Lance pushed passed it, swallowing hard and promising himself that none of it mattered. He waited until he was sure the girl had gone and then headed outside to take a long walk. He still held the paper in his hands of the lyrics that he had poured over and he folded it neatly into his pocket.

_Look at the streetlights so they couldn't keep them off of me_

_This is the darkest night I think that there has ever been_

_It was all for you, it was all for you_

Lance walked along the dark streets, the only guide the few flickering street lamps lining the pavement. He wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew it felt right. He stopped several times on his walk, taking in the night air and letting his mind settle on thoughts of Kitty. As memories played through his head he tried to remember the last time he hadn't been thinking of her. He couldn't come up with a time, so when he found himself at the gates of the Institute, he wasn't the least bit surprised.

_So maybe it's time to move on_

_In the daylight things are different_

_Maybe it's time to move on_

_Cause it can't be if it isn't_

The sun was starting to rise and Lance was more confused than ever. He pulled out the folded paper from his pocket and stared at the lyrics again. It was too hard, holding on to a relationship that never really was between them, and he wasn't sure he could do it anymore. He wished he could talk to her about it, and see if she felt the same, if she was as tired as he was.

_Maybe we get what we want_

_In the daylight things are different_

_Been stuck in this place for so long_

But then he caught a glimpse of her and his heart caught in his chest. As much as their relationship was leaving its wear and tear on him, he couldn't give up. He had to have her. He needed her.

_I hate that you are gone girl_

_I hate that you are gone_

_Maybe it's time to move on_

When she moved out of sight and away from the window, Lance felt a pang deep in his chest. He hated the way things were, but he knew it would take some grand gesture to get back into her heart. As much as it pained him, he would have to wait. But when the time was right, he would swoop in and make her his again. He tore up the piece up paper, letting the shreds fall to the ground and left them there as he made his way back to the Brotherhood house to finally catch some rest.


End file.
